Crypto-Anarchy Explained

How many of you have heard about crypto-anarchy and how many of you can actually explain what it means?

A lot of people may now be put off, mistaking the idea behind crypto-anarchy with the essence of political anarchy. Let’s be clear that crypto-anarchy is something entirely different. There’s no hint of aggression to it whatsoever as it aims for peaceful application of certain principles in the blockchain and crypto realms.

Defining crypto-anarchy

Crypto-anarchy has nothing to do with politics, in which true anarchy or anarchism aims at overthrowing the current state order and replacing it with people’s power.

Crypto-anarchy supports blockchain technology in framing the free society of the 21st century. The main idea rests on the belief that blockchain technology offers advanced cryptographic options – the only solution available to date that can protect individual freedom and privacy on the Web.

The founder

The mastermind behind crypto-anarchy is Timothy C. May, or Tim Mya, who was an American writer, electronic engineer, and senior scientist at Intel in its early days.

May was clearly into cyberpunk, which lead to the creation of a related FAQ called The Cyphernomicon. An crucial part of it was the so-called The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, the bible of every crypto anarchist:

Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re-routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.

This revolutionizing technology is blockchain, obviously, the unbeatable cryptography of which is believed to be able to transform the functioning of the Internet. There’s no way we can take its drawbacks out of the picture, of course, and there will always be people who’d want to use this technology to their own advantage, but in essence, blockchain was created to do the world good rather than evil.

The legacy

Earlier this week, we wrote about Paralelni Polis, a crypto anarchist haven located in Prague, Czech Republic. This blog post wasn’t a coincidence, but an introduction to the discussion of crypto-anarchy.

Paralelni Polis (PP) is all about crypto-anarchy, however, its members are often mistaken for hackers. Yes, the group has taken responsibility for some hacker attacks, but PP exists along with the state order, just like crypto-anarchy does. The ultimate aim is not to get rid of the state and its order, but to create a parallel ecosystem on the Web that will allow for maximum privacy and freedom, without any authorities making their way into our lives, secretly dictating it.

Once more, with feeling

We hope we managed to make it very clear that crypto-anarchy is about peace and co-existence rather than elimination of one member from the equation. Crypto-anarchy and the state can go hand in hand, there’s no need to get rid of one or the other.

What are your thoughts on crypto-anarchy? Do you think the idea will appeal to conscientious people or crypto-anarchy might be headed the slightly vicious way? Please share in the comment section below!